About Me

Although I haven't gotten a western made yet, there's interest in a western series I've created (on paper). If you'd like to take a look at the sort of things I write, please visit my website, www.henrycparke.com. Thanks for looking!

MY Q&A WITH INSP-TV

HENRY ON ‘WRITER’S BLOCK’

On July 30th, 2015, I was the guest of hosts Bobbi Jean Bell and Jim Christina on ‘Writer’s Block’, their L.A. TALK-RADIO talk-show about the art and craft of writing. You can click PLAY to hear it, or DOWNLOAD to download it.

ROUND-UP ON THE RADIO!

Last Christmastime I was a guest on AROUND THE BARN, and had a great time talking about the Round-up, my writing, and Gene Autry’s Christmas music. To listen, click HERE.

Other Stuff I Write

While this blog is strictly about Western stuff, I also write another blog, Stalling Tactics, which is about anything else. If you'd like to read my most recent post, COSTUME DRAMA TRAUMA, go HERE.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Get your Tivos set, because on Tuesday, January 10th,
PBS will premiere a new episode in their excellent AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
documentary series.BILLY THE KID will
be the first documentary to run under their THE WILD WEST grouping.To see a preview/teaser, click HERE.The following Tuesday, January 17th,
another episode will premiere, CUSTER’S LAST STAND.To see the preview/teaser, click HERE.

Beginning on Thursday, January 5th with THE
OX-BOX INCIDENT and continuing for most Thursdays in February, Eastman House in
Rochester, New York, will present ‘Tall in the Saddle’, a Western film festival
curated by Jack Garner.Other films to
be shown will include HIGH NOON, THE BIG COUNTRY, BLOOD ON THE MOON, WAGON
MASTER, THE GUNFIGHTER and Walter Hill’s THE LONG RIDERS.I’ll have more details soon.

LOS ENCINOS SLATED FOR 2012 CLOSING

Often known simply as ‘The Duck Park’ or
‘The Duck Pond’, for the natural spring that attracts flocks of varied breeds
of ducks, geese and other birds, both migratory and resident, LosEncinosState Park has a history
that stretches back centuries.But it’s a
history which may abruptly end, as it is one of seventy State Parks currently slated
for closure due to a $22 million cut in the budget for state parks.

At the corner of Balboa and Ventura Avenues
in Encino, an Indian village was for centuries the home of the Tongva, most of
whom left around 1797 to relocate at the then new San Fernando Mission.In 1834, when Mexico
dissolved the Mission system, three mission
Indians were given a 4,400 acre land grant for the Los Encinos area.The area, eventually the De La Osa Rancho,
would become a center of beef-raising with the coming of the Gold Rush, and in
fact the two standing adobe buildings were built in 1849.They were at various times the homes of
Spanish families, Basque shepherds, and a busy stage-coach stop when Ventura Boulevard
was better known as El Camino Real.

A popular park, famous for their monthly
‘living history’ presentation, Los Encinos is no stranger to strife.Just weeks after the buildings’ 1994
reopening after an expensive renovation, the Northridge Earthquake hit, closing
the buildings for more than another decade.At brainstorming meetings this month, docents, local residents, business
representatives and politicians have to come up with ideas on how to raise the
money to save the park.One clear fact
is that it costs about $150,000 a year to operate the park, and the park has
turned a paltry $50 profit two years running.Even to close the park to the public, but maintain it, would cost
$15,000 to $30,000 a year.

Among the politicians who are trying to help
save the place are State Senator Fran Pavley, who describes the park as “a
hidden treasure,” and L.A. Councilman Paul Koretz. Ironically, in the midst of California’s
(and America’s)
financial woes, L. A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is campaigning to open fifty
new parks, and there’s no reason why Los Encinos couldn’t be one of them.If you’d like to know more, and to help,
please visit the docent website HERE.

ROBERT EASTON, 'HENRY
HIGGINS OF HOLLYWOOD',
DIES AT 81

Born in Milwaukee
in 1930, the smiling giant of a man played likable bumpkins, and frequently has
his casting cancelled by short leading men.Fearful of being typecast as a 'rube', he moved to London to study accents and became a master
of accents, coaching everyone from Robert Duvall to Forest Whitaker to John
Travolta.

When I had a chance to chat with his last year, he pointed out that among his many Westerns in all media, he played Chester's brother,
Magnus, on GUNSMOKE, first on radio, then TV. It's a great Christmas show, andHERE's the link. To read about his memories of working at Republic,
go HERE.

WATCH TRIGGER AND BULLET ON NEW YEARS DAY

The Annual New Years Day Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena will feature anRFD-TV-sponsored float honoring the 100th birthday of the King Of The Cowboys, Roy Rogers!And though they’ve been gone longer than Roy, riding the float will be Trigger, the smartest horse in the movies, and Roy’s wonder-dog, Bullet!The artfully taxidermied pair has been touring the country, making public appearances, for about a year, since network owner Patrick Gottsch purchased the dynamic duo at the big Roy Rogers Estate Auction.RFD-TV shows an episode of theRoy Rogers Show every Sunday, and a Roy Rogers movie every Tuesday, with repeats..

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. If you want to find out more about Westerns on TV, and the usual stuff I have at the bottom of my blog entries, I need you to scroll down to last week's Round-up. I've finished writing a pilot for a Western series, and I've got to get back to work plotting out the first season.

Happy New Year and Happy Trails,

Henry

All original contents copyright December 2011 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved!

Monday, December 19, 2011

Writer and director Fred Olen Ray,
whose AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES garnered a number of awards last
year, and whose THE SHOOTER (1997) has developed a cult following, will wrap
today (Sunday) BAD BLOOD: THE HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS.Fred tells me the film, which has been
shooting in Kentucky, stars Jeff Fahey, Perry King, Tim Abell (Frank James in BANDITS), Priscilla Barnes,
Sean Flynn, Ted Monte, “...and a host of other
great actors... freezing temperatures can't stop me!”

(Sean Flynn)

(Tim Abell)

Just heard from Fred a few hours
ago that the job is nearly done.“A few
small shots at Stephen Foster's home tomorrow morning and then return the grip
truck to Cincinnati
and party hardy!”The film is being
produced by the team of Barry Barnholtz and Jeffrey Schenck, whose THE FIRST
RIDE OF WYATT EARP, starring Val Kilmer, will open March 30th,
2012.(Pictures courtesy of Tim Abell
and Fred Olen Ray)

(Director Fred Olen Ray)

(Jeff Fahey)

MORGAN KANE – THE CLAW OF THE DRAGON

eBook #4 in the Morgan Kane series by Louis
Masterson, THE CLAW OF THE DRAGON, is now available from Amazon, Barnes &
Noble and all the usual suspects -- all to get you ready for MORGAN KANE: THE
LEGEND BEGINS, from WR Films. You can learn more HERE.

CLINT EASTWOOD TO STAR IN E! REALITY SERIES

You don’t have to check your calendars; it’s not April Fool’s Day.Clint, his wife and two teenaged daughters are
going to do a reality show for the E network, produced by the revolting
characters who produce all of the revolting Kardashian family shows.The theory I keep hearing is that he’s doing
it for the teenaged daughters.Personally, if it’s like the rest of the reality stuff, I don’t think
teenaged daughters or sons should be allowed to watch it, no less be in it.

BOOK
REVIEW – ‘GLENN FORD, A LIFE’ BY PETER FORD

If
you’re looking for a Christmas gift for a movie lover, may I suggest Peter
Ford’s fascinating biography of his father, one of Hollywood’s greatest leading men, Glenn
Ford.He appeared, almost always as the
lead, in nearly eighty movies, two dozen of them Westerns, and if he never was
nominated for an Oscar, or received a Lifetime Achievement Award, that is a
failing of the Academy and the AFI, not the actor.Among his indelible performances were his
roles in GILDA, THE BIG HEAT, COWBOY, 3:10 TO YUMA, BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, THE COURTSHIP OF
EDDIE’S FATHER, and THE ROUNDERS.

Biographies
by offspring can be tricky.All too
often they are up too close to write objectively, or imagine themselves of
equal interest with their subject, or use the biographical form to settle
scores.Also, they often can’t write
worth a damn.But Peter Ford writes very
well indeed, and manages to make his close-up perspective a plus rather than a
detriment.And boy, does he have
material to work with.In addition to
his own observations, and interviews with many of his father’s friends, costars
and coworkers, Glenn kept detailed diaries for his entire life, and frequently
tape-recorded his thoughts.Incredibly,
unbeknownst to son Peter at the time, dad hired a man to tap the house phones,
so there are hundreds of hours of the conversations of Peter, his mother, and
Glenn recorded!Moreover, Glenn was a
good friend of then-President Richard Nixon – it’s kind of fun to know Nixon
was being secretly taped by someone else for a change.

It’s
not surprising that Glenn Ford married another movie star, the tap-dancing
miracle known as Eleanor Powell.But
what was unusual were their relative career positions.When wed, he was just establishing himself as
a leading man.Eleanor, though only four
years his senior, had been a top star for years, first in vaudeville, then in
MGM musicals, and she gave that up to focus entirely on being a wife and
mother.Peter found that in a way, she
focused on motherhood too much, and his father, used to being the center of a
woman’s attention, felt in competition with his own child.

While
A LIFE is not a MOMMY DEAREST, it’s also not a whitewash.Although Peter had a better relationship with
his father as an adult than as a child, that only began to happen after
reaching a painful conclusion.“I made a
conscious decision that I would no longer wish for a traditional father, one
who would interact with me as I had always dreamed.”His relationship with his mother was much
more satisfactory.“All I can say is
that my mom was an even better mother than a dancer – and as a dancer she was
unparalleled.”

Not
that Glenn didn’t take an interest in his son’s betterment, but it often took
strange forms.When he wanted Peter to
learn about the birds and the bees, instead of having ‘the talk,’ he paid
stuntman ‘Buzz’ Henry and his friends to initiate the fourteen-year-old.But the warm-up, showing the kid stag movies
that included bestiality, so unnerved the kid that they never got him to the brothel.The job wouldn’t be completed until a few
years later, with the help of Glenn Ford co-starAndrew Prine.

While
it was not unusual for romances to happen between stars during the making of a
movie, it would take this entire Round-up to list all the affairs that Ford
engaged in with his leading ladies.But
in the end, loyalty would win out and he would always go back – to Rita
Hayworth.Their on-and-off involvement
eventually became so obvious that she went ahead and bought the house next
door, and put a gate between their back yards.

Glenn
Ford’s career was unusual in many ways.He was under exclusive contract to a single studio, COLUMBIA PICTURES
for decades, much longer than most stars of his stature.In some ways it was to his detriment, in that
for years he took all the roles that Harry Cohn assigned, frequently appearing
in films well below his talents.And
sometimes he made mistakes when he did turn down parts.Two of the leads he nixed were great
successes for his close friend William Holden; BORN YESTERDAY and PICNIC.Other disappointments were beyond his control
– he was set to be the lead in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY until the original
producer dropped dead.

He
could be tremendously loyal.He hired
Howard Clifton, who directed him in his early amateur theatrics, to be his dialogue
director for decades.And his personal
friends were often many years his senior; among his close pals on the set were
Louis Calhern and Edgar Buchanan.One
his favorite directors was George Marshall, and when starring in the series
CADE’S COUNTY, Ford saw to it that his 80-year-old friend directed his first
television show.“You know that man
directed his first picture – ACROSS THE RIO GRANDE – in 1916.D.W. Griffith had just made THE BIRTH OF A
NATION…. I wonder how many people working here today realize they’re looking at
one of the people who invented the movies and this place called Hollywood.”

Much
of Ford’s life in later years is tragic.After his divorce from Powell, and one normal marriage, and a series of
affairs, his life was taken over by a series of women of a sort that is found
in growing numbers in Hollywood:
the controllers.These often attractive
younger women (and sometimes men) specialize in insinuating themselves into the
lives of wealthy fading stars, cutting them off from family and friends, and
bleeding the bank accounts dry.

But
overall, you leave the book with a smile, and a greater understanding of a man
who was not only one of the finest actors to grace the silver screen, but one
who could sit a horse better than any other – and that’s what every wrangler
I’ve asked has told me.As Ford said,
“If I could do whatever I wanted for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t do
anything but westerns.”

GLENN
FORD – A LIFE by Peter Ford, with an introduction by Patrick McGilligan, is published
by the University
of Wisconsin Press.

DVD REVIEW – ‘WESTERN COURAGE’
STARRING KEN MAYNARD

It’s no coincidence that WESTERN
COURAGE came out of Columbia Pictures in 1935, the year after that studio’s
Oscars-sweep with Frank Capra'sIT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.The story is set in the modern day, for 1935. Geneva Mitchell plays a
spoiled heiress whose father, Charles K. French, is afraid she’ll elope with a
twit just after her money, Cornelius Keefe -- sound familiar yet?But being more proactive than the dad in ONE
NIGHT, this dad hustles his daughter and wife off to a dude ranch where he
hopes to elude the twit, not knowing the twit got there ahead of him –
presumably in an auto-gyro.

Of course Ken Maynard stars in the
Clark Gable role, this time as a wrangler rather than a reporter, whom the lady
just loathes.Granted, Maynard is no
Gable as an actor, but he’s amiable, and the script is written to let the girl
underestimate him while the audience realizes what a sly game he is playing
with her, ala TAMING OF THE SHREW.And
of course, it’s not romance but riding that Maynard’s fans look for, and there
are a couple of excellent riding sequences – always clearly featuring Maynard
rather than a double, since few stuntmen were any better than him.And his horse, Tarzan, has a wonderful, if
not entirely credible, scene saving our bound hero from a burning shack!

Happily, the last act of the story
takes an unexpected turn with the arrival of fleeing robbers, led by Ward Bond
– incidentally the bus driver in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT -- as an educated bandit whose
suavity blinds the girl to his menace.It’s
a very enjoyable hour. It's available from Finders Keepers Classics, for $7, HERE.

TV WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL!

More and more, classic TV Westerns are available all over the TV universe, but they tend to be on small networks that are easy to miss.Of course, ENCORE WESTERNS is the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years.It’s not in my current satellite package, which is why I often forget to mention it, but currently they run CHEYENNE, MAVERICK, LAWMAN, THE VIRGINIAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, GUNSMOKE, BRET MAVERICK, CIMMARON STRIP, and HOW THE WEST WAS WON.(I’d get it in a minute, if I didn’t have to buy a huge package of STARZ and ENCORE channels just to get the one!)

But there are several new, or at least new-to-me, channels showing sagebrush fare.GEB, which stands for Golden Eagle Broadcasting, is largely a religious-programming cable outlet that runs at least one Western on Saturdays – the ones I’ve caught have been public domain Roy Rogers and John Wayne pictures – and sometimes have weekday afternoon movies as well.

For those of you who watch TV with an antenna, there are at least a couple of channels that exist between the standard numbers – largely unavailable on cable or satellite systems – that provide Western fare.ANTENNA TV is currently running RIN TIN TIN, CIRCUS BOY, HERE COME THE BRIDES, and IRON HORSE.

Another ‘in between’ outfit, ME-TV, which stands for Memorable Entertainment TV, runs a wide collection: BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, BRANDED, DANIEL BOONE, GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, GUNSMOKE, MARSHALL DILLON (the renamed black and white GUNSMOKE), RAWHIDE, THE RIFLEMAN, and WILD WILD WEST.Some of these channels are hard to track down, but if they show what you’ve been missing, it’s worth the search.

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

That's right, the segment I was interviewed for is now
viewable here:

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permenant galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywood western, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.

WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.

FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

BONANZA and BIG VALLEY

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They've stopped running GUNSMOKE.INSP is showing THE BIG VALLEY every weekday at noon, one p.m. and nine p.m., and Saturdays at 6 p.m., and have just added DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN to their schedule.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

AMC has been airing a block of THE RIFLEMAN episodes early Saturday mornings, usually followed by Western features.

And RFD-TV is currently showing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW at 9:30 Sunday morning, repeated several times a week, and a Roy feature as well -- check your local listings.

I just noticed that next Sunday is Christmas Day, so just in case I end up posting a little late, let me take the opportunity now to wish you a very Merry Christmas and/or Happy Chanukah!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2011 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

Sunday, December 11, 2011

According to Deadline Hollywood, Tom Wilkinson, Oscar nominated for his
roles in MICHAEL CLAYTON and IN THE BEDROOM, will be playing lead villain
Latham Cole (not Butch Cavendish, as us purists were expecting), in the Disney film budgeted at $185 million.
He joins Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp as the LR and Tonto respectively, as well
as Ruth Wilson, BarryPepper – Lucky Ned Pepper in TRUE GRIT, Helena Bonham
Carter, James Badge Dale, Dwight Yoakum -- soon to be seen as Gen. Meade in TO
APPOMATTOX, and LEVERAGE star Timothy Hutton.It’s being directed by Gore Verbinski from a script by Ted Elliot,
Justin Haythe and Terry Rossio.The
Disney film, budgeted at $215 million, is scheduled for a May 31, 2013 release.

MORE ‘LONE RANGER’ NEWS

The start date for principal photography will be February 13th.The big question is whether the picture will
be shot in Louisiana or New Mexico, or both, and producer Jerry
Bruckheimer has been playing the states against each other to get the best
deal.He explains to The Hollywood Reporter, "We found that Louisiana gave us a better tax incentive than New Mexico -- that was
another $8 million. We're still shooting in New Mexico,
and we might [also] go to Louisiana.
We're asking New Mexico to come closer to the Louisiana incentive. We
dropped our California
location not because they didn't offer a tax break but because it was another
production office that we had to open. Every time you have a new location, you
have to use crew time setting it up for you. There are a lot of expenses."

Today,
Sunday, December 11th, an extras casting session was held at Far
Horizons Studios in Albuquerque,
New Mexico.The notice, using the code name SILVER BULLET
to confuse the simple-minded, described their needs:“Major Motion Picture, Silver Bullet is
currently seeking Native American males and females for
featured extra roles to film in the Shiprock New Mexico area. Individuals
who are experienced horse riders are particular encouraged to apply.The production is seeking males with no
facial hair, males with a lot of facial hair, females, Native Americans,
Asians. The production is also casting for a Native American Boy age range 9-11
for a featured speaking role in the film. Candidates must be available from
February 13th through July 14th, 2012.”So here’s a tip to aspiring actors: don’t
shave.Both LONE RANGER and Quentin
Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED casting notices are looking for men with a lot of
facial hair.

And
the studio has finally issued an official synopsis.SPOILER ALERT!If you’ve never heard the radio show or
watched the TV series, you may not know all of the following, but it is
virtually identical to the plot created by Lone Ranger creator Fran Striker: "Left
for dead in an ambush with five other Texas Rangers, lawman John Reid (Armie Hammer) survives
and is nursed back to health by an Indian scout named Tonto (Johnny Depp). He then
dons a mask to avenge the murders of his comrades and to foil evil doers, never
accepting payment for his services. His gratis vigilantism is made possible by
the silver mine he inherits from one of his slain brothers - the same mine that
affords him an endless supply of his trademark silver bullets."Intriguingly, actress Ruth Wilson plays
Rebecca Reid, but it’s not explained what relation her character is to the
masked rider of the plains.

IT’S THE ROUND-UP’S 100TH POST!

My sincere thanks to all of you ‘Rounders’ who read this blog!I started it about two years ago, because I
couldn’t find a central source of news for Western movie and TV production and
events, and decided to create one.Naturally, it took time for people to find it – it took a few months to
get up to 100 hits! I must express my gratitude to the thousands of readers who
now visit the Round-up regularly; there have been just about 38,000 visits to
the Round-up, an average of 5,500 pageviews per month.And I’m thrilled at how far across the globe
the Round-up has reached.Today alone
we’ve been visited by readers in the United
States, Germany,
the United Kingdom, France, Japan,
Brazil, Italy, Mexico,
Norway and Russia.Also this week we were read in Canada, Chile,
Finland, Spain and Poland, and we’re also popular in Portugal, Iran, Iraq,
Malaysia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Jordan and Israel.

I also must extend my thanks to the film and TV industry production
companies, networks, and industry professionals who have embraced us, from our long-time sponsor, DISH HD, to Turner
Classic Movies to The Autry Center to RFD-TV and INSP-TV, and the Western movie
and TV productions –YELLOW ROCK, THE FIRST RIDE OF WYATT EARP, SHADOW HILLS,
GANG OF ROSES II, MORGAN KANE:THE
LEGEND BEGINS – who have generously welcomed me onto their sets.

For the future I have a substantial number of interviews lined up with
important actors, writers, producers and other industry professionals, both
current and from the golden age, and already have ‘in-the-can’ conversations
with actor Earl Holliman and writer-producer Andrew J. Fenady.I am much obliged for your continued support.

‘LINCOLN
VS. ZOMBIES’ DETAILS REVEALED

Following up on last week’s survey of Honest-Abe-related
projects, Asylum Entertainment honcho David Latt confirmed that they are moving
ahead with their story of the Great Emancipator vs. the Living Dead.“We are indeed working on Abraham Lincoln vs.
Zombies.Our budget is $69 million...or
less. The script is getting written; the treatment is non-stop action. Lincoln is more like
Wesley Snipes in BLADE. He's a bad-ass zombie killer. Based on a true
story...or not.”I’d probably play it
safe, Hollywood style, and say, ‘inspired by actual events.’

When I asked about the likelihood of a new Western from
Asylum, Latt was encouraging.“We are
talking about it.6 GUNS is one of my
favorites, so I hope we are jumping into another western soon.”

HARRY MORGAN DIES AT 95

The long-faced actor with the deep voice and droll delivery, best
remembered for playing Bill Gannon on DRAGNET and Col. Potter on the M*A*S*H
series, has passed away at the age of 95.An Emmy winner for his Potter portrayal in 1980, in 1982 he was
nominated for a DGA Award for his direction of a M*A*S*H episode.

(Henry Fonda and Harry Morgan in THE OX-BOW INCIDENT)

Morgan also had a long list of memorable Western roles, often as a bad guy.
In THE OX-BOW INCIDENT he was part of the lynch mob. In HIGH NOON he hides
behinds his wife’s skirts when Gary Cooper comes looking for help. In THE
SHOOTIST he’s Marshall Thibido, who is gleeful that old gunfighter John Wayne
is going to die in his town. His other Western featured credits include STAR IN
THE DUST, THE OMAHA TRAIL, YELLOW SKY for William Wellman, THE SHOWDOWN with
Wild Bill Elliot, BEND OF THE RIVER, THE FAR COUNTRY and CIMARRON
for Anthony Mann, THE TOUGHEST MAN IN ARIZONA, and BACKLASH for John Sturges. Additionally,
he appeared in THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG Western comedies, and guested on many
Western series, including GUNSMOKE, THE VIRGINIAN, HEC RAMSEY, HAVE GUN WILL
TRAVEL, and two WILD WILD WEST TV-movies.He was a winner of the Golden Boot Award. To see his interview with the
Archive of American Television, click HERE.

BOOTHILL,
TOMBSTONE

One
of the first things you see upon entering Tombstone
is the Boothill Graveyard.Ironically, Tombstone is a desert
boomtown that was destroyed by too much water
in the wrong place – seeping up from the silver mines.But the town is definitely in a desert, and
that is nowhere more obvious than in Boothill, where the headstones spring up
in fields of sand and gravel, the graves themselves marked by mounds of stone.

A
small booklet available in the shop at the entrance contains, as it says on the
cover, “a descriptive list of the more than 250 graves in Boothill.”There are eleven rows of graves, and the
booklet tells you as much information as could be garnered from locals or
family or the Arizona Historical Society.Sometimes sources vary in their version of history.The last grave in row ten is Mrs. Ah
Lum.The booklet says, “Born in China, and
buried in Boothill in 1906.She had
great influence among the Chinese residents here.Some believe she had Tong affiliation in China.”Other sources, correct on not, put it more
bluntly, that China Mary was the Queen of Opium and other vice in Tombstone.

One
gravestone serves for five men: Dan Dowd, Red Sample, Tex Howard, Bill Delaney
and Dan Kelly were all legally hanged for taking part in the robbery of a
Bisbee general store, where several innocents were killed in the
crossfire.John Heath, who masterminded
the crime but didn’t actually take part, was sentenced to life at Yuma prison.A furious mob dragged Heath from the Tombstone jail and strung
him up.

Little
is known about some.One stone reads,
“Teamster Killed By Apaches.”Another
simply, “Two Cowboys Drowned.”There’s
also the grave of Margarita, the Bird Cage Theatre prostitute stabbed to death
by another, Gold Dollar, over a regular customer.

Also
here is the grave whose oft-quoted poetry made it into the movie TOMBSTONE:“Here lies Lester Moore, Four slugs from a
.44, No Les, no more.”Moore was a Wells Fargo agent who died in a
gunfight over a package.He killed the
other man, but that man’s name is not remembered because no one wrote a poem
about him.

Of
course, much interest here turns on the O.K. Corral.Right by Old Man Clanton’s grave (yes, ‘Old
Man’ is what his marker says) is a headstone shared by Billy Clanton, Tom
McLaury and Frank McLaury, with the legend, “Murdered on the streets of Tombstone 1881.”According to LA ULTIMA, a collection of last
words of early Arizona Pioneers by Troy Kelley, Tom McLaury’s last words – in
response to Virgil Earp’s command to throw up his hands -- were, “I have got
nothing.”“I have you now!” Frank
McLaury shouted to Doc Holliday, just before he was shot in the head by Morgan
Earp.Billy Clanton’s words were more
dramatic still: “They have murdered me.I have been murdered!Chase the
crowd away from the door and give me air!Drive the crowd away!”

As
my wife and I were shopping in the store at the entrance, a DVD player was
showing TOMBSTONE,
and a table held a wide selection of O.K. CORRAL-related videos.I asked the lady at the counter about her
favorite version of the legend, and she said to her, Wyatt Earp would always
mean Hugh O’Brien.When I agreed, she
told me that back in 1994, WYATT EARP: RETURN TO TOMBSTONE, with O’Brien, was
shot in town on all the real locations, and her granddaughter, five at the
time, had a small part in the film.Now
the girl was 22, and it was a shame, but no one had been able to get them a
copy of the movie.I told her I’d get
her a copy, and when I went back to Los Angeles, the folks at Eddie Brandt’s
Saturday Matinee, the best video store in the world, were able to get me a VHS
tape for her in a matter of minutes.

Of
course, people always ask to see Wyatt Earp’s grave, but he’s not buried
there.And that leads us to another
story…

WYATT
EARP’S SECRET BURIAL

In
1957, The Tombstone Restoration Commission, then headed by Mrs. Edna Landin,
decided they wanted to move Wyatt Earp’s ashes to Tombstone.Of course, to do this, they would need his family’s permission and, even
before they could seek that permission, they’d have to find out where those
ashes were.Because, incredibly, no one seemed
to know where the lawman was buried, including his closest living relative, 92
year old cousin George Earp.

All
that was known for sure was that Wyatt Earp had died in Los Angeles on January 13th, 1929,
and his widow, Josephine Marcus, had him cremated, and took the ashes with
her.She died in 1944, also in Los Angeles.

(Deputy KIng with McCarty's plaque of Earp)

Artist
and True West writer Lea McCarty has just finished a series of canvases of
lawmen and outlaws, including a portrait of Earp, and an article in a Santa Rosa paper brought
it to the attention of A.M. King.King
had worked as a deputy with Earp in Los
Angeles, from 1910 to 1912.He contacted McCarty, to see the pictures.McCarty, who’d been commissioned by the Tombstone organization to
do a plaque of Earp, for when the ashes were moved, welcomed King to his studio.Several times.King admired his work.He talked about his time working with Earp,
when they were each paid $10 a day to deliver beer during a beer strike in L.A..He talked about the Ned Buntline special that
Earp carried in his car.In fact, he
talked about everything except where Earp was buried!He claimed that he knew, but wasn’t
talking.

But
eventually King came clean, and presented McCarty with an old newspaper article
that solved the mystery.Josephine,
after having Wyatt cremated, had taken the ashes with her back to San Francisco, where her family was from, and had his
ashes buried in the Marcus family plot at the Hills of Eternity Jewish Cemetery
in Colma, California.Her ashes were now beside his, and they
shared a marker.The reason the location
had been kept a secret was perfectly understandable: nobody wants their family
plot to become a tourist site.When the
Tombstone Commission learned this, they cancelled plans to try to have him
moved. Mrs. Landin said, “I do not
think it would be right to remove Mr. Earp’s remains when he rests there with
his wife.”

(caretaker pointing to spot where headstone had been)

Remarkably,
that’s not quite the end of the story.This information is taken from McCrea’s article in the September-October
1957 issue of TRUE WEST MAGAZINE.But
before it even went to press, they had to add another article:WYATT EARP’S GRAVE ROBBED!On July 6th or 7th, someone
had driven a truck into the cemetery and managed to dig out the 600 pound grave
marker and abscond with it.They also
tried to steal his ashes, and dug five feet down in their search, but missed
it.I have read that the stone was
eventually recovered, but a much larger stone is there today.

(Wyatt and Josephine Earp's grave today)

TV WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL!

More and more, classic TV Westerns are available all over the TV universe, but they tend to be on small networks that are easy to miss.Of course, ENCORE WESTERNS is the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years.It’s not in my current satellite package, which is why I often forget to mention it, but currently they run CHEYENNE, MAVERICK, LAWMAN, THE VIRGINIAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, GUNSMOKE, BRET MAVERICK, CIMMARON STRIP, and HOW THE WEST WAS WON.(I’d get it in a minute, if I didn’t have to buy a huge package of STARZ and ENCORE channels just to get the one!)

But there are several new, or at least new-to-me, channels showing sagebrush fare.GEB, which stands for Golden Eagle Broadcasting, is largely a religious-programming cable outlet that runs at least one Western on Saturdays – the ones I’ve caught have been public domain Roy Rogers and John Wayne pictures – and sometimes have weekday afternoon movies as well.

For those of you who watch TV with an antenna, there are at least a couple of channels that exist between the standard numbers – largely unavailable on cable or satellite systems – that provide Western fare.ANTENNA TV is currently running RIN TIN TIN, CIRCUS BOY, HERE COME THE BRIDES, and IRON HORSE.

Another ‘in between’ outfit, ME-TV, which stands for Memorable Entertainment TV, runs a wide collection: BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, BRANDED, DANIEL BOONE, GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, GUNSMOKE, MARSHALL DILLON (the renamed black and white GUNSMOKE), RAWHIDE, THE RIFLEMAN, and WILD WILD WEST.Some of these channels are hard to track down, but if they show what you’ve been missing, it’s worth the search.

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

That's right, the segment I was interviewed for is now
viewable here:

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permenant galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywood western, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.

WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.

FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

BONANZA and BIG VALLEY

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They've stopped running GUNSMOKE.INSP is showing THE BIG VALLEY every weekday at noon, one p.m. and nine p.m., and Saturdays at 6 p.m., and have just added DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN to their schedule.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

AMC has been airing a block of THE RIFLEMAN episodes early Saturday mornings, usually followed by Western features.

And RFD-TV is currently showing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW at 9:30 Sunday morning, repeated several times a week, and a Roy feature as well -- check your local listings.

That's about all for now!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2011 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Many folks surfing the internet this week have seen a shot
of Academy Award winner Daniel DayLewis having lunch wearing his Great
Emancipator beard.He’s currently
working for Stephen Speilberg in LINCOLN, a film
which will tell the story of how our 16th President steered the Union to its victory over the Confederacy.

(Daniel Day Lewis - Lincoln at lunch)

In addition to Lewis, who won Oscars for MY LEFT FOOT and
THERE WILL BE BLOOD, his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, will be played by Sally
Field, who won Oscars for NORMA RAE and PLACES IN THE HEART.Their son, Robert Todd Lincoln, will be played
by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, soon to be seen in the sci-fier LOOPER and Quentin
Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED.The cast
also features Tommy Lee Jones as Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, David Strathairn
as Secretary of State Seward, Jared Harris as U.S. Grant, Jackie Earle Haley as
Confederate VP Alexander Stephens, as well as James Spader, Hal Holbrook, and a
host of others.

It’s based on the book TEAM OF RIVALS: THE GENIUS OF ABRAHAM
LINCOLN by Doris Kearns Goodwin, the nationally known historian and former aid
to President Lyndon Johnson.The other
three writers, credited with the screenplay, are Tony Kushner – Oscar nominated
for MUNICH and
Emmy winner for ANGELS IN AMERICA, John Logan – Oscar nominated for THE AVIATOR
and GLADIATOR, and Paul Webb, who has no previous professional credits.

As revealed in last week’s Round-up (go HERE if you missed it), SONY Television is producing a miniseries entitled TO APPOMATTOX, starring Stephen Lang, who played Ike Clanton in TOMBSTONE and Gen. Pickett in GETTYSBURG, as Lincoln.

(Stephen Lang)

While Speilberg’s LINCOLN is
currently in production, and APPOMATTOX
is aiming at a 2013 TV release, another, less scholarly biography of Honest Abe
is closer on the horizon.On June 22,
2012 Benjamin Walker, of FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, will star in ABRAHAM LINCOLN:
VAMPIRE HUNTER.The film is being
produced by Tim Burton and directed by Timur Bekmambetov.The Lincoln
make-up is the work of three-time Oscar winner Greg Cannom.

(Benjamin Walker as Lincoln)

These are not small projects – the Speilberg LINCOLN is
budgeted at around $100 million, and the President-with-a-wooden-stake version
is not far behind at $70 million.When,
in an earlier Round-up, I quoted a Paramount
insider who opined that VAMPIRE HUNTER was a movie that should be made, but by
Asylum Pictures, for $350,000, I heard from Asylum honcho David Latt: “Hey Henry! Thanks for the suggestion...and you'll be
happy (sad?) to know that ABRAHAM LINCOLN
VS. ZOMBIES is already in the
works. Ours will cost less than $70 million. Promise.” I’m waiting to hear back
from him how the project is progressing.

And because I am something of a completeist, also coming
soon is FDR: AMERICAN BADDASS, in which HERCULES star Kevin Sorbo will play Lincoln opposite Barry Bostwick’sRoosevelt.I know I’ll be hearing from historical
nit-pickers about the fact that the presidents may never have met, since FDR
was born seventeen years after Lincoln’s
assassination.

My personal disappointment is that, with all the interest in
Lincoln, no one
is filming the best Lincoln-related – actually assassination-related – book of
the last several years, MANHUNT – THE 12 DAY CHASE FOR LINCOLN’S KILLER by
James L. Swanson.Once optioned by
Robert Redford, but dropped when he decided to do the interesting but
unsatisfying THE CONSPIRATOR instead, it would make one helluvah movie, even
without monsters.

DVD REVIEWS

FINDERS KEEPERS CLASSICS is a great place to get
hard-to-find movies and TV shows.Their
pricing is very straight-forward: all single disks and many 2-disk sets are $7
each, larger sets are more, and shipping is a flat $6 no matter how big the
order.They just sent me a crate full of
interesting westerns from the ‘30s and ‘40s, and I’m reviewing a pair of them
today. Their site is HERE .Incidentally, Finders Keepers Classics is the
work of Martin Grams, an excellent writer and film and radio historian, and
author of more than twenty books. Here is
a link to an article he wrote about HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, one of the very few
shows to start on television and move to radio: MARTIN GRAMS.

DVD REVIEW -- LAWLESS BREED

As a long-time fan of SKY KING, I was eager to take a look
at LAWLESS BREED (1946), starring Kirby Grant, with Fuzzy Knight as his
sidekick, Tumbleweed.While Republic and
Monogram and PRC Westerns are easy to come by, B westerns from the majors are
rarely seen, and this was the last of seven that Grant did for Universal before
moving on to Monogram for his Canadian Mountie series.

At first, I was dubious.It looked like Universal, knowing it was the last of the series, had
decided not to spend a dime on it: the opening scene in a sheriff’s office,
where Kirby and Fuzzy try to talk themselves out of a murder charge, is static
– Kirby tells his story as a way to introduce endless clips of stock footage,
and I started to wonder if they’d ever leave the office.But once they do, the story -- and the new
footage -- takes off.And you have two
innocent victims of blind justice, a gang of serial bank-robbers, a good girl
who happens to be the sheriff’s daughter (Jane Adams), a bad girl who happens
to be a saucy French saloon chanteuse (Claudia Drake), and delightfully broad
character actor Dick Curtis playing brothers, one a stodgy banker who is
murdered, and the other a sea captain -- with a parrot -- trying to catch his
brother’s killer!There’s also insurance
fraud, grave-robbing, and our heroes tricked into taking on a murder contract
with a gun loaded with blanks – not to mention several songs, all in under 54
minutes!

Kirby is all charm when he’s flirting with the ladies or
cajoling the Sheriff, but there’s a grimness to his demeanor when things are
bad that’s startlingly convincing.On
the other hand, I was surprised to find what a pleasant singing voice he had,
when he and Fuzzy take turns vocalizing in the slammer. LAWLESS BREED is an often exciting and amusing
Western, and John Ford favorite Hank Worden is effective in a small role as a
deputy who’s out of his depth when things go awry.

The print it’s taken from is pretty scratched, and splicey
in a few spots, but the contrast is very good, giving you a wide range of
grays.There were a few scenes that I
thought were too dark, but when I rewound, turned off the lights and watched
again, I saw they were fine.They were
just shot to be seen in a darkened theatre.Because this movie was from a time before all movies were shot with the
knowledge that they’d eventually be shown on television – the reason most
movies from the mid-sixties on are a succession of flat-lit close-ups.

DVD REVIEW – CHEROKEE STRIP

Richard Dix and Victor Jory face off in CHEROKEE STRIP
(1940), an 86 minute B+ production from Harry ‘Pop’ Sherman,
released by Paramount.Dix, as Dave Morell, has come as the new Federal
Marshal to the town of Goliath, gateway to the Cherokee Strip, once the property of the Cherokee Indian
Nation, and about to be opened to white settlers.But he has a hidden agenda: he’s the head of
the Morell Clan, which has been feuding for years with the Barrett Clan, led by
Coy Barrett, played by Victor Jory.The
two men have actually signed a formal truce, but neither trusts the other
farther than they can spit.

Jory is now a successful and respectable banker, but that’s just
a front to run his clan’s stage-robbing and cattle-rustling activity.And into the mix comes Senator Cross (Charles
Trowbridge) and his daughter and son, Florence Rice and William Henry, who are
working as federal census takers, the natural allies of Federal Marshal Dix,
even before he becomes sweet on Florence Rice.

CHEROKEE STRIP is an exciting
and smart story, and much of the fun is watching the cat-and-mouse game Dix and
Jory play, always polite, but always ready to cut the other to pieces if a fair
opportunity arises.The stagecoach trip
they take together is a classic of deadly one-ups-man-ship.

Producer Sherman, who made his first fortune distributing
BIRTH OF A NATION, was a savvy businessman and a gifted Western filmmaker.He’s the man who bought ‘Hopalong Cassidy’,
and cast William Boyd.Beloved by his
crews, who called him ‘Pop,’ Sherman infused his low-budget films with high
production values, beautiful locations, top technical credits, and a loyal
stock company of actors that made his films many cuts above the average with a
similar budget.

Unlike so many stars of his time, iron-jawed Dix had
successfully made the transition from silent to talking pictures, and had his
greatest success in 1931’s CIMARRON, the first Western to win a Best Picture
Oscar (the next wasn’t until Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN in 1992), and for which he
was nominated for Best Actor.Though no
longer a top box-office star, his career continued on successfully in the
1940s, and he arguably did his most interesting acting in that period, as the
lead in Columbia’s THE WHISTLER series, and as the ‘kindly’ sea captain in Val
Lewton’s GHOST SHIP.

Victor Jory, fresh from his villainous triumph as Tara’s overseer in the previous year’s GONE WITH THE
WIND, the former Coast Guard boxing and wrestling champ would have a busy
career until 1980.Also in the cast is Andy
Clyde, as an assistant to Dix, but not the traditional sidekick he would later
become that same year, when Pop Sherman would cast him as California Carlson, a
role he would play in HOPALONG CASSIDY movies, TV and radio episodes for a
dozen years.Among the other stand-out
tough guys in the cast were Sherman
stock-company actors like Tom Tyler, Morris Ankrum, and Hal Taliaffero, and
George E. Stone who, as he did in CIMARRON,
plays an obviously Jewish character, someone rarely seen in the traditionally
‘white-bread’ Westerns.

It’s written by Western specialists Norman Houston and
Bernard McConville, and directed by Lesley Selander, who directed exactly half
of the films Pop Sherman produced – 36 out of 72.Selander’s work was many cuts above what was
done in most B or A westerns, not just in terms of action, but in direction of
actors, and creativity – 21 post-World War II Tim Holt Westerns he directed at
RKO are among the best B-westerns ever made.

TV WESTERNS ALL OVER THE DIAL!

More and more, classic TV Westerns are available all over the TV universe, but they tend to be on small networks that are easy to miss.Of course, ENCORE WESTERNS is the best continuous source of such programming, and has been for years.It’s not in my current satellite package, which is why I often forget to mention it, but currently they run CHEYENNE, MAVERICK, LAWMAN, THE VIRGINIAN, WAGON TRAIN, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, GUNSMOKE, BRET MAVERICK, CIMMARON STRIP, and HOW THE WEST WAS WON.(I’d get it in a minute, if I didn’t have to buy a huge package of STARZ and ENCORE channels just to get the one!)

But there are several new, or at least new-to-me, channels showing sagebrush fare.GEB, which stands for Golden Eagle Broadcasting, is largely a religious-programming cable outlet that runs at least one Western on Saturdays – the ones I’ve caught have been public domain Roy Rogers and John Wayne pictures – and sometimes have weekday afternoon movies as well.

For those of you who watch TV with an antenna, there are at least a couple of channels that exist between the standard numbers – largely unavailable on cable or satellite systems – that provide Western fare.ANTENNA TV is currently running RIN TIN TIN, CIRCUS BOY, HERE COME THE BRIDES, and IRON HORSE.

Another ‘in between’ outfit, ME-TV, which stands for Memorable Entertainment TV, runs a wide collection: BIG VALLEY, BONANZA, BRANDED, DANIEL BOONE, GUNS OF WILL SONNETT, GUNSMOKE, MARSHALL DILLON (the renamed black and white GUNSMOKE), RAWHIDE, THE RIFLEMAN, and WILD WILD WEST.Some of these channels are hard to track down, but if they show what you’ve been missing, it’s worth the search.

TCM FANATIC - WESTERN NOW ONLINE!

That's right, the segment I was interviewed for is now
viewable here:

THE AUTRY NATIONAL CENTER

Built by cowboy actor, singer, baseball and TV entrepeneur Gene Autry, and designed by the Disney Imagineering team, the Autry is a world-class museum housing a fascinating collection of items related to the fact, fiction, film, history and art of the American West. In addition to their permenant galleries (to which new items are frequently added), they have temporary shows. The Autry has many special programs every week -- sometimes several in a day. To check their daily calendar, CLICK HERE. And they always have gold panning for kids every weekend. For directions, hours, admission prices, and all other information, CLICK HERE.

HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE MUSEUM

Across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, this building, once the headquarters of Lasky-Famous Players (later Paramount Pictures) was the original DeMille Barn, where Cecil B. DeMille made the first Hollywood western, The Squaw Man. They have a permanent display of movie props, documents and other items related to early, especially silent, film production. They also have occasional special programs. 2100 Highland Ave., L.A. CA 323-874-2276. Thursday – Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. $5 for adults, $3 for senior, $1 for children.

WELLS FARGO HISTORY MUSEUM

This small but entertaining museum gives a detailed history of Wells Fargo when the name suggested stage-coaches rather than ATMS. There’s a historically accurate reproduction of an agent’s office, an original Concord Coach, and other historical displays. Open Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Admission is free. 213-253-7166. 333 S. Grand Street, L.A. CA.

FREE WESTERNS ON YOUR COMPUTER AT HULU

A staggering number of western TV episodes and movies are available, entirely free, for viewing on your computer at HULU. You do have to sit through the commercials, but that seems like a small price to pay. The series available -- often several entire seasons to choose from -- include THE RIFLEMAN, THE CISCO KID, THE LONE RANGER, BAT MASTERSON, THE BIG VALLEY, ALIAS SMITH AND JONES, and one I missed from 2003 called PEACEMAKERS starring Tom Berenger. Because they are linked up with the TV LAND website, you can also see BONANZA and GUNSMOKE episodes, but only the ones that are running on the network that week.

The features include a dozen Zane Grey adaptations, and many or most of the others are public domain features. To visit HULU on their western page, CLICK HERE.

BONANZA and BIG VALLEY

Every weekday, TV LAND airs a three-hour block of BONANZA episodes from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. They've stopped running GUNSMOKE.INSP is showing THE BIG VALLEY every weekday at noon, one p.m. and nine p.m., and Saturdays at 6 p.m., and have just added DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN to their schedule.

NEED YOUR BLACK & WHITE TV FIX?

Check out your cable system for WHT, which stands for World Harvest Television. It's a religious network that runs a lot of good western programming. Your times may vary, depending on where you live, but weekdays in Los Angeles they run DANIEL BOONE at 1:00 p.m., and two episodes of THE RIFLEMAN from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.. On Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. it's THE RIFLEMAN again, followed at 2:30 by BAT MASTERSON. And unlike many stations in the re-run business, they run the shows in the original airing order. There's an afternoon movie on weekdays at noon, often a western, and they show western films on the weekend, but the schedule is sporadic.

AMC has been airing a block of THE RIFLEMAN episodes early Saturday mornings, usually followed by Western features.

And RFD-TV is currently showing THE ROY ROGERS SHOW at 9:30 Sunday morning, repeated several times a week, and a Roy feature as well -- check your local listings.

That's a wrap for today -- I was hoping to include a story on Tombstone's Boot Hill, but that will have to wait until the next Round-up.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright December 2011 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved